


An Heiress's Resolve

by digimaniac33



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:21:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25569670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digimaniac33/pseuds/digimaniac33
Summary: Weiss has trouble sleeping at the Brunswick farmhouse, but sharing a story from her past helps her to relax
Kudos: 7





	An Heiress's Resolve

Weiss stared up at the farmhouse’s ceiling, unable to sleep despite how exhausted she was. Somehow, the combined effects of surviving a train crash, having her understanding of the world shattered, and finding actual corpses didn’t add up to peaceful sleep. Who could’ve guessed.

Fabric rustling behind her grabbed her attention, and she whipped her head around a little too fast. It was just one of the others shifting in sleep, though, not a threat she’d have to deal with. She sighed, trying to relax her stretched nerves. _Maybe some water._ She got up carefully, making as little noise as possible. No reason to wake the others just because she couldn’t pass out at the drop of a hat, after all.

The kitchen didn’t have running water, but before going to bed Yang had collected some falling snow in clean pots and left it to melt. Some of it was still more slush than water, but it was better than nothing. Still, Weiss couldn’t help but cringe as she dipped a glass in one of the pots. _First canned food and now snow,_ she groused to herself. _Honestly, this is no way to travel._

“Weiss?”

She nearly dropped the glass as she heard her name. She had one hand reached out, prepared to drop some kind of glyph, before she realized it was just Ruby. “Don’t scare me like that!” Weiss whispered sharply. She put the glass down before something else could come out of nowhere and make her wake everyone up.

“Sorry.” Ruby rubbed at one of her eyes. “Why aren’t you sleeping?”

Weiss rolled her eyes. “If I knew why I couldn’t sleep, I’d fix it and go to sleep, wouldn’t I?”

Ruby tilted her head, with just a hint of a smile pulling at one corner of her mouth. “… Would you?”

“Of course I would!” She shook her head, unable to stop a small smile of her own. “Now why aren’t you sleeping?”

“The fire popped a little loud and woke me up, and I realized you weren’t in bed so I came to check on you.” Ruby stepped further into the kitchen. “I know today’s been… a lot to handle,” she said as she took a seat at the kitchen table. “Do you wanna talk for a little bit?”

A few cutting remarks came to Weiss’s mind, but she dismissed them as parts of her old self that she didn’t need right now. They were part of who she’d been in Atlas, but with her team she could be someone new. Someone she liked better. “… Not about… today, but yes, I think I’d like that.” She took her own seat, brushing her skirt carefully to make sure the rough-hewn wood wouldn’t catch any splinters.

“Okay.” Ruby swung her legs a little. “… Can I ask you something?”

“Depends on the question,” Weiss answered warily.

“Heh, fair.” Ruby gestured over her left eye. “Did that happen to you before you unlocked your Aura?”

Weiss raised one hand to the scar over her eye. “Oh…”

“We - we can talk about something else if you want!” Ruby verbally backpedaled, frantic but quiet out of respect for their sleeping friends. “I’ve just always wondered, and you’ve never really mentioned how it happened, so… yeah.”

Weiss traced her hand over the scar. No one had ever really asked before - in Atlas, it had been gauche to bring up, and at Beacon, she wasn’t the only one who’d been marked by battle. “After, actually. It was… a training accident, I suppose you could call it.”

Ruby frowned. “An accident? Did your Aura break?”

“Not exactly.” Weiss tried to figure out the best place to start. “There was a Geist that possessed a statue of armor we had. This was after Winter was gone, so I was the best candidate to face off against it. It was my first chance facing off against an actual Grimm, instead of one of my sister’s summoned creatures.” Remembering her audience, Weiss described the fight in detail for Ruby - how she’d first tried piercing the Arma Gigas’s armor with her rapier, only to be punched to the side, giving her the wound that would later scar, and how she finished the fight by unleashing a whirlwind of glyphs and Dust that finally took the creature down.

Ruby’s eyes sparkled as she described the altercation, still excited even now by what would now be almost a warm-up. “You really trapped it in mid-air? And your Dust enhancement was enough to take it down?” She bounced a little. “That is so cool!”

Weiss shook her head with a wry little smile. “Oh come on, it’s hardly all that impressive now. We could probably take a dozen in half the time.”

“Yeah, but this was before Beacon, so it was before we did all that training together!” Ruby quieted down, reminded perhaps of what else they’d been through together. She frowned suddenly. “But, wait, if you could still use your glyphs, then you must’ve had plenty of Aura, right? So why…” She gestured to her eye again.

 _Oh, right._ Weiss had almost forgotten that was why she was telling the story in the first place. She pulled her hands together, trying to figure out the best way to explain. “… Atlas is a beautiful place.” She pointed a finger at Ruby, who already had her mouth open in confusion. “I’m getting there! Just be quiet and listen!” Ruby puffed her cheeks in annoyance, but she did close her mouth, so Weiss continued. “It’s all about appearances, really - who’s wearing what outfit, how much money was spent on this party, and so many scandals about who’s been meeting with who else. My father loves it, of course - he’s very good at appearing like the perfect businessman and family leader.” She swallowed hard, trying not to remember too many bad nights where he didn’t have to worry about appearances.

Her hands were suddenly covered by another, and she looked in surprise at Ruby. She just smiled, rubbing Weiss’s knuckles comfortingly. Weiss gave a small smile back - it had taken her some time to get used to how physically affectionate she and Yang were, but it was comforting now. She took a deep breath, continuing, “My training to become a Huntress… it wasn’t exactly something that fit into his concept of a perfect family. I was just supposed to sing and be a pretty ornament at parties. But when I was punched, when I felt the blood running down my face, I realized… if I didn’t use my Aura, if I let it scar, then…” She paused a moment. She’d never actually explained her thoughts in that moment before - the doctor had been confused, her father furious, but she’d ignored any demands for answers. Eventually they’d all written it off as a mistake, when it had been anything but. “This scar… it’s a permanent reminder for myself, and for my family, that I’m not just a pretty singer or the daughter who wouldn’t leave. I am a Huntress.” She blushed. “Or, well, I’m going to be one.”

“Wow. That’s… that’s incredible, Weiss.” Ruby was still rubbing at her knuckles. “… I’m really sorry we have to go back there.”

Weiss sighed. “Let’s just… we’ll talk about it in the morning, okay? We’re both tired, after all.” She yawned. “Maybe enough to finally fall asleep this time.”

“Okay,” Ruby agreed, giving Weiss’s hand one last rub before standing. She began walking back to the other room, but she stopped at the doorway and turned back. “Weiss?”

“Yes, Ruby?”

“You’re already a great Huntress.”

Weiss blushed. “… Get to bed already.”

Ruby smiled and left, taking that as the thanks Weiss meant. Weiss took one more sip of water before returning herself. This time, as she laid herself down, sleep took her almost instantly.


End file.
